“I’ve always had an interest in helping in the community,” said Tracey Lewis, president and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City, Missouri. “It just took me a while to figure out how my professional experience could help advance certain, more broad community opportunities.”
Lewis, originally from Boston, has been in Kansas City for 20 years and stepped into his leadership role with the EDC in July 2022. For years prior to that, as he carried out his career in finance and banking, Lewis served the community by volunteering for committee and leadership roles in local organizations including the Missouri Housing Development Commission, SchoolSmart KC, Inc., and University Health. He is a co-founder of Vision Impact Power Fund, which seeks to increase charitable giving among and improve the quality of life of African Americans in the greater Kansas City area.
“It was healthy and beneficial to come into the EDC with a blank slate,” he said. “I didn’t know enough at the time to have a vision and in any case, economic development is not prescriptive. Each community has needs and opportunities unique to itself and we need to address those with resources tailored to those communities.”
In the last two years, much of his efforts have been to address EDC’s outdated business model and realign the organization with the city as well as internally with long-term professional staff.
“It was less about an overhaul than just reconnecting with our present reality,” said Lewis. “Staff appreciate the rationale of the updated business model and, today, city hall and the EDC are well aligned. There is a shared commitment to fix problems.”
A measure of success, he said, is if the people in the economic development ecosystem are willing to be your partners. “When I first started there was skepticism,” Lewis said. “We had to stay true to what we knew needed to change rather than acquiescing to traditional expectations of partners. Over time, mutual trust grew between community partners and me, which gave the EDC the opportunity to be more effective.”
Among many other initiatives, EDC now directly works with agency partners like the KC Chamber, KC Area Development Council and the Civic Council, representing the city in the strategies and policies to attract business. It partners with the city’s KC Biz Care, the EDC/Downtown Council joint venture – Launch KC and other agencies to help small businesses get access to capital. More recently, EDC began negotiating with the city to administer its Central City Economic Development Sales Tax District (CCED) program. It also engaged to support CBKC’s KC Sun Fresh at Linwood, by advocating for resources and initiatives that enhance safety and foster an environment that attracts a broader customer base to the store, which has struggled over the last year with criminal activity in and around the store.
There are plenty of opportunities to pursue, of course. Still missing, he said, was a unifying effort to bring four major participants – government, business, philanthropy and unions – to the table or, at least, to align their economic development objectives.
“When it comes to business, EDC needs to chart the path,” said Lewis. “We are actively working to find the medium that makes the key parties comfortable with the reality of the economic development eco system and then, determine what is next.”